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Highway of Death

On February 24, 1991, after 39 days of a devastating air campaign, the U.S. led coalition began to liberate Kuwait and systematically destroy most of Saddam Hussein and Iraq’s army, the 4th largest army in the world. 100 hours was all it took. Four days of a stunning display of speed and technology.

On January 17, 1991, U.N. Resolution had expired for Saddam Hussein to leave Kuwait. The next 5 weeks saw an air campaign destroy the capability of Iraqi forces to conduct combat operations that the ground war was almost over before it began. Two other key factors would play a huge role in the ground war: Night Vision and G.P.S.

Night vision allowed the coalition forces to seek and destroy Iraqi Republican guard forces at will. The vision system gave coalition forces the ability to detect Iraqi armor through heat detection. In most cases, Iraqi troops were scrambling to even get in their vehicles before U.S. Forces fired. Night vision enhanced the speed capabilities of Bradley Fighting vehicles and the Abrams tank. In addition, the vision systems also provided the ability of the Abrams tank to fire up to a mile and a half away from its target.

New to the battlefield in 1991, GPS, or global positioning system, gave coalition forces a distinct advantage. In a desert, it is easy to get lost. There are no roads, no signs, nor vegetation to give one a clue as to where one is. GPS did. Coalition forces could maneuver, and out manuever, the enemy at will due to the fact that it knew where it was at all times. The US would be able to send forces into a region of Iraq even the Iraqis refused to enter and thereby gain an advantage in outflanking the enemy.

The operation to now liberate Kuwait (Operation Desert Sabre) began and ended quickly. The biggest fear in America was that Saddam would use chemical weapons against ground troops. As the invasion began, the world held its breath. It did not have to hold it very long. Iraqi forces pummeled in the air campaign were physically and mentally incapable of combat. Several Iraqis surrendered to news agencies. In fact, news agencies made it into Kuwait City before the coalition.

As the coalition moved along a single front, a second force sped north into the open desert to outflank the vaunted Iraqi Republican Guard. Schwarzkopf called this maneuver a left hook. The left hook provided what some call a turkey shoot of retreating Iraqis and what has since come to be known as the “Highway of Death”. As Iraqis tried to get back to Iraq with all of Kuwait’s treasures, they were met with a barrage of power ending the retreat.

Four days earlier, Americans had been filled with trepidation. After 100 hours of combat, On January 27, 1991, President George H.W. Bush called off the operation as Kuwait had been liberated. It was a controversial move. James Baker, then Secretary of State, commented the fear the US had at the time was of angering the Saudis and other Arab members of the coalition. Many Americans felt the US should have gone on to Baghdad and ousted Saddam Hussein. One person who did not was Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney. Listen to this…

Dick should have listened to himself some nine years later.

In early March of 1991, Iraq agreed to terms of the cease-fire. These included a no fly zone over southern and northern Iraq. Also, inspections of weapons facilities were a part of trying to keep Saddam in check. Two more US presidents would struggle to enforce these terms.

What Desert Storm proved was the US military was back – faster, stronger, and much more technical than ever before. After over 40 years of trying to contain communism, the US military had met with limited and poor results on the battlefield. First in Korea, then in Vietnam, the U.S. was still reeling by the mid 1980s. By the end of 1991, the USSR was no longer a major player on the world stage. The cold war was over. The US was the only major player left, a hyper power in the mold of a Roman Empire. The victory of Desert Storm renewed American enthusiasm at home. The malaise of the 1970s dissipated and the transformation of American optimism was in fashion.

Unfortunately, it would be the highpoint of Bush’s single term in office. A tax hike a year later would doom his presidency. The might of US forces in the Middle East would not last. With limited aims as a peacekeeping force in Somalia two years later, the US would struggle as it had in the 1970s.

But the oil did flow after Desert Storm. The Persian Gulf became a major base of operations for US to protect that flow. By 2001, the US had moved its bases from Saudi Arabia to Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. These three countries would be the staging grounds for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Operation Desert Storm began the hegemonic role of the US in the Persian Gulf.

In February of 2009, the Department of Defense reversed a long-standing policy of allowing the flag-draped coffins of American soldiers to be shown to the public. This new policy reverses the restriction put in place by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and carried out by George W. Bush for soldiers killed in the War on Terror. Photography has had the power to change the course of wars here at home – for good and for bad. In the one hundred seventy year history of photography, images of war not only have captured our hearts, but they have also changed our minds.

The Mexican-American War saw the first images of soldiers being captured for posterity. Rather than battlefield scenes, the soldiers posed for portraits for their loved ones. But it would be Matthew Brady’s photographs in his gallery in New York City that began to show the impact that war would have on the public.
Had the linotype been mass-produced at the time, the magazines and national newspapers could have had an effect.

During the fight for the great plains, The Battle of Little Big Horn spurred the American public to put the Indians on the reservations. But it was the Massacre at Wounded Knee that caused the American public to recoil. The frozen images stunned the public in to calling off the Cavalry.

During World War I, president Wilson placed restrictions on what could and could not be said about the war in the press. Lincoln had done the same in the Civil War, but the images and reaction towards the US and the “merchants of death” would not be felt until after the war.

During World War II, it was actually an image that helped save a country and inspire the nation to finish up the task at hand. The second photograph taken at the raising of the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi would inspire not only these down below on the 8 square mile island, but those at home. The US army would actually send the flag raisers on a tour to help raise money for the nearly bankrupt country.

However, it was in Vietnam that the whole photography and freedom of the press corps set up the policy envisioned first by Reagan in Grenada and then George H.W. Bush in 1991. War photographers in Vietnam had total freedom to go wherever and whenever they wanted or needed to. All they needed was a ride. And if they couldn’t find a ride, chances were the combatants were going to be killing each other the next day.
About ten years ago the History Channel released a documentary called “The Camera at War” about the photographs and the photographers that helped changed the war. The documentary is my favorite of all time. I still show it to my students spread out over the course of two days. From a burning monk to Eddie Adam’s execution (below) to My Lai to Kent State, the Vietnam War was the first “in-your-face” war. My earliest memories are of sitting around the dinner table and watching the images filter into the living room.
As a result of these images, and many more, the government would end its relationship, and funding, of the South Vietnamese regime. As the images on the news combined with images in Life Magazine slowly filtered to the American public over time, so did the support for Johnson and the military in this country.

When the 1980s and Reagan’s military excursion against Grenada came to be, the press was not even involved. In Grenada, as in Operation Desert Storm, the Defense Department strictly controlled the flow of information and images. It was only after Desert Storm ‘s ground war ended did the carnage become clear. Up until then, the only images seen were of laser guided weaponry. The images most Americans remember are actually the sight of Schwarzkopf and his amazing press conferences and smart weapons.

September 11 reminded Americans how Democracy and the press worked. Some of the images of the day were not only staggering but also acted as inspiration for a generation of Americans.

However, when it came to go into Iraq, the press was embedded with a specific unit. The images that flooded into the living rooms of the 1960s did not come as quickly in the spring of 2003. However, striking images did come and they would change the course of the war.

Initially, the falling statue of Saddam and the shoe beating it took struck a chord with many Americans. When President Bush flew onto an aircraft carrier that summer, it was a banner behind him that prematurely signalled the end of the war and also began the long insurgency which would last almost five years.

The most famous images from Iraq actually do not come from the press but they would have a huge impact. The pictures taken by soldiers at Abu Ghraib would do more to keep the anti-war movement going just as Eddie Adams “The Execution” did in the 1960s.

When it is all said and done, the images can sway public opinion either way. The images last long after the war and remain a record of the war. Along with letters of soldiers, they are just a valuable record of the events and more valuable than the government record. However, when the next war comes, even in Afghanistan, the battle will be fought again between the press and the government for the hearts and minds of Americans.

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This Summer
Cataloging a Farm Museum: Real Live History
This summer I will be cataloging a farm museum not too far from where I live. It may not seem that exciting, but to me I get to do what historians do. The Museum is actually in two connected buildings and contains artifacts from the mid 1800s to today with an emphasis on depression era farming tools and methods. I will be taking pictures, writing descriptions, and histories of each item. It should be very exciting to learn about the past to preserve it for the future.

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